- To mock Cervantes' character is to fall
into redundancy. You don't need to be a Quixote to justify
your existence, it would suffice not being part of the windmills.
- I don't trust those who never have enough
time to establish a dialog. I don't trust those who read and
write in a lazy way. I don't trust those computer idiots who
read line-by-line and take more than one paragraph as a presumptuous
prose to justify that they are not able to catch the idea in a
speech. I'd spend some more time in telling you why but I
don't trust you.
- Salvador Dalí said that to be a good
painter you need to be a bit stupid. After twenty years
dedicated to the music I ended up thinking the same about being a good
musician. After more than half a life trying all kinds of
people I came to the same conclusion about being a good person.
- Living in the present: three days
ago you decided to turn left. The day before yesterday you
took the same decision, yesterday the same and the same
today. Without realizing it, after a long ride, you are now
in the same place as three days ago. But four days
older.
- Even being his right-hand man he wasn't
able to shut up in front of the last arbitrary rule taken by the
despotic leader.
“But, general…, why?!”
“Culture is in our ideals,” answered the
dictator.
- Fortunately, I've never witnessed it;
being a child I was told that if you tie a cord with a can to the tail
of a cat, the cat thinks that it's being chased and does not stop
running until it falls dead. I find interesting to look for
analogies in which a human being is the victim of this kind of deceit,
especially in my own life, aware that fear often nests in
ignorance. Surely I'd find more than one looking at the lives
of those who enjoy doing that to a cat.
- It's ever been unquestionable for me that
the subject is, by far, more interesting than the object. In
fact, if I had to leave right now the only I'd carry with me would be
the nice memories of those moments I've shared with others without
caring too much if working, dinning or playing cards. As an
illustrative example: I've never found any sense in having sex with a
prostitute. It'll seem a contradiction but—perhaps deceived
as anyone by what psychologists call “projection”—I feel I'm talking
objectively, from my own sane ambition and selfishness, therefore I
suppose I'm not more mature than those who see others as simple
utensils.
- Curriculum Vitae: even those who
threw the newborn baby into a dumpster experienced motherhood.
- Since reason is my law, being right does
nothing but frustrate me.
- Lots of sayings, even biblical proverbs,
discourage arguing with idiots. But don't follow this
strictly unless you enjoy talking to yourself the whole
day. Or writing.
- Arguing for or against any religion is a
nonsense—I assume everyone is able to understand this without further
explanation. But don't blame yourself if you fall into this
trap, it's not always easy to distinguish those who argue to clarify
from those who do it to sell. At the end of the day, every
argument ends up being swallowed by this “black hole” that religion
is. In a world where “Why” and “What for” are conspicuous by
their absence, headed by economy and seconded by politics, religion
rules as it pleases, in some cases disguised as science, to look
modern. We have enough history on our backs, enough empirical
evidence that it's barely been a platonic dream: scientific thinking
is never going to have the last word.
- Who really understands current global
status quo realizes that, in most cases, the constructive option
is to stop constructing.
- Distinguish the unnecessary to avoid
useless movements towards better effectiveness. That's to be
wise.
- “It's easier to think negatively,” I
heard someone to say. How does this theory explain most
optimists are idiots?
- I've lost count of how many tried to give
me life lessons and teach me humility at the same time, even within a
few minutes of meeting me!
- The myth tells us Prometheus stole the
sacred fire from the gods and gave it to his
creation. Clearly he didn't act with “forethought” and well
deserved Zeus' punishment: has there been man on Earth able to really
benefit from power or, at least, to live amicably with it?
- Unlike lawyers, politicians and people in
general, a philosopher doesn't speak or argue to defend himself or his
immediate benefit, it's not his goal to defeat an opponent, to
win. A philosopher confronts truths like a kamikaze,
aware that, whether renouncing worldly benefits or surrendering to an
enemy, achieving his goal always means losing.
- Your best friend was perhaps
condescending; hiding how repulsive it was for him to discover that you
had your own point of view, he simply pretended to listen.
- An inexperienced young man tries to
advise someone much older. After twenty years without seeing
each other, they meet again, and the old man, to put the other to the
test, reminds him of that talk. “I don't remember anything,”
replied the young man, “if you do, it's surely because my advice was
wise.”
- Masturbation passed from being considered
sick and shameful (even unhealthy, not so long ago) to embrace all
aspects and levels of our existence.
- Of course, in theory, everything done by
humanity can justly be considered part of what we call
culture. But what I personally and intimately prefer to
believe that culture is (or should be), lives only in the consciousness
of a few minds.
- P.S. to Hobbyists: surely many
programmers have suffered anecdotes similar or analogous to that of the
famous free software guru with the printer in that artificial
intelligence laboratory. However, the lack of freedom does
not seem to affect most people at all.
- It's funny to hear from a scientist that
this or that species is at risk of extinction, even funnier are the
supposed ecological measures many people propose and implement in this
regard. For example, the case of a woman in Catalonia who
claims to be saving a native goat from the area by breeding it on her
farm and utilizing (commercializing) its meat and milk; “If you want to
save a species, eat it,” she argues. Not to mention those who
believe they're saving the dog by adopting it as a pet or the owner of a
castrated cat who believes to help prevent abuse of animals by consuming
soy burgers. Alas, my lost androids of
modernity! The increasing process of degradation and
destruction of life on this planet by our hands began thousands of years
ago, when we became sedentary; the belief that any idea or measure born
from us can reverse, slow down or palliate this process comes from the
same misconception that generates it in a first instance.
- “By their fruits ye shall know them,”
said Matthew. Who would need faith if this judgment were
fair!
- It has always happened to me that when I
have mastered a subject I don't need it anymore. God uses
these tricks to remind us that we have no power or authority over
anything. That's why it concerns me–despite I'm not too
old–the feeling that I'm starting to learn how to live.
- Do you want to play with
advantage? Let them win!
- God is a child. We are his
toys.
- It doesn't matter how much money you
manage. Either stream or great river you'll just see the
water pass by.
- Not even a mother is
unconditional. It's all about how you live, you coexist, you
negotiate. Someone who in our eyes is intelligent in this
sense may end up gaining our trust or even our loyalty.
- My late mother used to say “Misery is not
poverty.” Above livelihoods, skills and circumstances, folk
knowledge condemns its neighbor for its psychology.
- Simply put, the way men distort the truth
to justify their vices and whims is disgusting.
- I think my wife and I have been good
parents. The proof is we decided not to have children.
- Logic doesn't solve problems but
abstraction. Amputating a leg simplifies your body but not
your life.
- How we're going to understand each
other! A sparrow is killed by captivity, a canary by
freedom.
- Life taught me that to eat you have to
kill, as well as that, in general terms, the one who really does
the best for himself in the long run also benefits others.
- For the prize “to be right” they compete,
so they strut their knowledge in front of the
audience. Oblivious to my motives, it baffles them not to see
me bark, growl like them for that gnawed bone, they don't understand
that for me to win is to be wrong, to grant. Then, naked, in
front of myself, my prize is the Truth.
- This has been a recurrent situation in my
life: individuals who, not understanding me, have despised me, belittled
me or even expressed feeling "pity" for me. A problem that is
exhausted in itself has no solution, we can not help but feel pity for
those who suffer from it, however these individuals have inspired me
rather frustration.
- The most experienced blacksmith won't be
able to improve a hammer if he loses the notion of what it's useful
for.
- As someone with a strong vocation at an
early age I realized that's not easy to find what you're looking
for. You can spend half a life digging just to find out there
is nothing there. So, even knowing that charlatanism and vice
reign in this world, I don't hurry to belittle what is offered to me on
the way.
- The pattern changes not a minute before
or one after but just when I begin to feel able to
predict. And I don't speak of a specific occasion, this has
always happened to me with everything throughout my life. How
can I interpret this recurring experience that's not like the pat on the
shoulder of an intelligent entity reminding me again and again that
neither science nor chance have the last word? For historical
reasons, as long as I can not think of a better one, God is a good
nickname.
- It may be the opposite of what it seems
to be…, or vice versa. :-)
- Not a few confessed to me, some had to
overcome their pride in doing so, that they considered me a
genius. Others, I could say the rest, saw me and treated me
like a fool. Significant is there was no middle
ground. I usually don't pay attention to these popular
ratings, but thinking twice, maybe I should, especially because geniuses
are seen as fools by those who don't understand them. And
because those of genius and fool are not mutually exclusive
conditions.
- After hurting yourself and failing again
and again, seeking pleasure in excesses, eventually you mature and
discover the pleasure of balance.
- It's true what a popular saying of my
country affirms: “Dios aprieta, pero no ahoga” (literally: God
takes you by the neck and squeezes, but not to the point of suffocating
you.) Isn't this a form of torture?
- I'm naked inside, that is the worst
indecency.
- “Honest” are those who know how to
lie.
- When you dream about making up with
someone you haven't seen nor been on speaking terms for years is
because, deeply in your mind, you're burying him alive.
- metastasis: man conquer outer
space, find and colonize other planets with life.
- “You are an asshole, like everyone
else.”
“I'm an asshole, but not like everyone else.”
- Children are born for the same reason
dead are mourned: selfishness.
- True love:
“What happens with
you, Mary?” asks Joseph.
“I don't know.”
“Have you fallen in love
with someone else?”
“I did, many years ago, with someone or something
I imagined.”
- Do not forgive them, Father, they know
exactly what they're doing.
- “Art is cosmos' voice.”
“Nice
saying. Who is it from?”
“It's cosmos'. It
whispered it to my ear just now.”
- I've never felt like I owned anything or
anyone, not even myself. I've never had the ambition to
compete, to win. I enjoy a kind of freedom that's unknown to
most mortals.
- In our modern world, to survive means to
be able to brainwash yourself into believing your goals are legit.
- In the country of the blind the one-eyed
man is a nobody.
- Perfection is a fetish of mediocre
people.
- Arrogance, ignorance, stupidity are just
circumstantial, the actual foundation of our fascist world is collective
denial.
- I'm going to know what really matters to
you the day that, in that, I see you do the exact opposite of what most
do.
- No revolutionary movement comes from
people. It's some politician implementing a conveniently
adapted version of an idea borrowed from a thinker. If the
revolution takes place and succeed it's just to end establishing a new
more profitable slavery system. You'll hear those arguing
about the thinker's original idea, others blaming the twisting made by
the politician but the true is that this recurrent sad phenomenon we
observe along all human history is primarily determined by people's
nature, this is why it's unavoidable.
- In this world there are those who have no
head and those who have but do not use it. It would sound
funny if I didn't say it with total objectivity.
- What makes someone think that he says
what he thinks when he does not think what he says?
- Culture is not something you plan to do,
it's just an unavoidable consequence of living.
- The path that they show you as the
easiest and fastest is the one that leads you right to the
slaughterhouse.
- There's no evil that lasts a hundred
years (but a replacement is not long in coming.)
- There is only one scenario in which I can
imagine an optimistic vision of this world plausible (as I always
clarify, I am referring to the world as man has degraded it,) a
circumstance even more fanciful than time travel: being able to live
going backwards, against the clock.
- Today everyone assumes that the hammer
has to also serve as a fishing rod, thermometer, telephone… A
few years ago I met someone who seemed to understand how harmful this
approach is but my relief turned into greater frustration when I saw the
poor fool, in his desire to simplify, removing the handle from the
hammer.
© Walter Alejandro Iglesias (from 2007 to
date.)
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